DOF gets P19.73-billion budget for 2018

A smaller budget looms for the Department of Finance (DOF) in 2018 after the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives endorsed P19.73 billion for congressional approval.

Next year’s budget is 16 percent lower or a P3.5-billion decrease from 2017. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez explained that 2017 saw most of the agency’s investment outlays, property, plant and equipment, and so the department purposely requested for a lower budget next year.

“The DOF voluntarily submitted a lower budget for 2018 compared to the preceding year to set an example for other departments to operate efficiently,” Dominguez said in a statement released yesterday.

Of the P19.7 billion proposed DOF budget for the next fiscal year, DOF said P17.97 billion comprises new general appropriations, while P1.75 billion represents automatic appropriations, of which P602 million is set aside for retirement and life insurance premiums, and P1.152 billion will go to the special accounts in the general fund for several programs under the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Insurance Commission (IC).

Likewise, allocations for DOF-attached agencies next year dropped. These include the BOC, from P3.82 billion in 2017 to P3.11 billion in 2018; BIR, from P8.57 billion to P8.04 billion; IC, from P7 million to P6 million; Securities and Exchange Commission, from P646.86 million to P629.87 million; and Central Board of Assessment Appeals, from P19.11 million to P18.63 million.

The Office of the Secretary will also be receiving a decreased allocation, from P1.62 billion in 2017 to P1.38 billion in 2018.

The budget of the Privatization Management Office went up by P21.79 million, from P54.23 million in 2017 to P76.01 million in 2018, along with the Bureau of Local Government Finance, from P263.10 million to P305.13 million, and the National Tax Research Center, from P51.20 million to P57.43 million. /